What are the Ways to know how many Watts per Plant is best?

Your led grow lights high times can be your best friend or your worst enemy when it comes to growing plants. I know this for sure because I have tried and tested different kinds of products and I got all sorts of results. Some plants were able to thrive successfully, while others died in the process.

I know I am not the only one who have this kind of experience and that is why I would like to discuss the importance of knowing how many watts per plant is best.​

What do plants need to survive?

Plants can live for multiple decades, sometimes, even centuries. Just like humans, they need specific things such as proper nourishment, air, water and sunlight to fully develop. These basic necessities should be met at least minimally or else they will die.

What are Grow Lights?​

Sunlight is essential to plants. The light from the sun activates the process of photosynthesis. This is where the plants get their energy. Now as we all know, the sun is not present 24 hours a day. It cannot be seen at night, is not as powerful during winter, and has a very low impact when the plants are located indoors.

Exposure to inadequate light would cause plants to grow small leaves, spindly stems, dried lower leaves, yellowish with brown edges leaves and leggy stems. With this, grow lights are there to the rescue!​

How many Watts per Plant is Best?

There are different ways to know how many watts you should give your plant. And since plants are unique, not only by their kingdom classification but because of their environment; one’s effective approximation of wattage might not be suitable to another.

You can estimate using the number of plants, the height of plants, measurement of the area covered by the plant, and the phase of growth your plant is undergoing at the moment but not per single plant.

Certain plants like tomatoes, peppers, and cannabis require high lights. On the other hand, leafy greens and herbal plants are known as low light plants. Technically speaking, a larger area is expected to demand higher wattages from your LED grow lights. The distance of the light and the plant will also be considered.​

Option 1

There are different rules we can follow and one of it is the 100 watts per plant rule. You have to take into consideration, however, that we are talking about the actual wattage of the light and not the advertised or equivalent watt.

Option 2

Fundamentally, we can make use of the baseline count of 32 watts ever 1 square foot if we are growing cannabis. For example, if the plant base is 3 by 3 square feet, your plants will need 288 watts. If one plant, occupies 1 square foot of land, it means that you should administer 32 watts for that plant.

Option 3

Others measure the appropriate watts based on lumens or the light output matched side by side with the wattage to know how much you should give. Plants in a vegetative cycle and flowering cycle require 2,500 and 10,000 lumens per square foot respectively. With this, gardeners would then compute their wattages accordingly.

Plant death due to wattage

Contrary to what others believe, I am sorry to tell you that it is actually the heat being emitted from the light that kills the plant and not the wattage itself. So make sure to gauge the remoteness of your grow lamps to your plants aside from calculating the wattages.

Conclusion

To cap this all, plants can develop continuously if the basic needs are provided such as water, air, and light. However, always bear in mind that too little or too much of these physiologic needs can affect them in a negative way.

The wattage you will need for a plant will differ from one to another. It will depend on a number of factors such as the variety of plant, where the plant is located, the space you have, the cycle of the plant and the kind of LED grow light you will be using.

I highly advise for you to be acquainted with the details of your product before using them. In addition to that, I encourage you to do a research about the nature of your plant prior to LED grow light exposure. These two tasks will not only save your plant, it will also prevent wastage of money, time and effort.

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Amelia

Amelia Robinson is a lover of plants and gardens, as well as an educator on this topic. It’s her goal to make sure that you get the chance to learn what you need to about gardening to succeed with your own home garden at the blog RobinsonLovePlants.com. You’re not going to find just a collection of basic articles about gardening here. Instead, she wants to answer the difficult questions for you. She tweets at @robinsonplants

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